Why am I passionate about this?

Between humor and pathos, I lean humor. Even the saddest, most shocking eventsā€”murder, for instanceā€”can be wrapped in kookiness. Combine this outlook with my love of old things (Iā€™m sitting on a 1920s Chinese wedding bed and drinking from an etched Victorian tumbler at this very moment), and youā€™ll understand why Iā€™m drawn to vintage screwball detective fiction. Although my mystery novels are cozies, I canā€™t help but infuse them with some of this screwball wackiness. I want readers to laugh, of course, but also to use my stories as springboards to see the hilarity and wonder in their own lives. 


I wrote

Witch upon a Star

By Angela M. Sanders,

Book cover of Witch upon a Star

What is my book about?

Josie is eager to show off Wilfred's delights to her visiting sister, Jeanā€”even though Josie must conceal her magic fromā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Beginning with a Bash

Angela M. Sanders Why did I love this book?

Golden Age mystery aficionados know Phoebe Atwood Taylorā€™s humorous Cape Cod mysteries, but they may not be familiar with the even more hilariousā€”in my opinion, anywayā€”mysteries she wrote as Alice Tilton.

A friend lent me Tilltonā€™s The Left Leg. As soon as Iā€™d read its last page, I was on the hunt for the rest of them.

Beginning with a Bash is the first in Tiltonā€™s series starring Leonidas Witherall, a boysā€™ school headmaster, radio detective story writer, and dead ringer for William Shakespeare.

These mysteries read more like capers, with Witherall ricocheting around Boston as he stumbles over corpses, eludes gangsters, dons disguises, and deals with impudent children and persistent dogs. Guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.

By Alice Tilton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Beginning with a Bash as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book by Tilton, Alice, Taylor, Phoebe Atwood


Book cover of The Black-Headed Pins

Angela M. Sanders Why did I love this book?

Constance and Gwenyth Littleā€”sometimes listed under the portmanteau Conyth Littleā€”wrote 21 screwball mysteries in the 1930s and 1940s, starting with The Grey Mist Murders.

Iā€™m recommending their second book, The Black-Headed Pins, because I think itā€™s where the Little sisters really begin to show their storytelling chops. Constance Little generally thought up the plots and clues, and Gwenyth fleshed out the books, both of them reportedly writing in bed each morning.

The Littlesā€™ mysteries arenā€™t a series, but they have several items in common. They feature smarty-pants heroines, snappy dialogue worthy of a Frank Capra movie, and romantic disasterā€”until it all turns out right. The Black-Headed Pins ticks all these boxes.

It takes place over Christmas and involves a moving corpse, a family curse, and a miserly hostess that makes Scrooge look positively benevolent.

By Constance Little, Gwenyth Little,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Black-Headed Pins as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book by Little, Constance, Little, Gwenyth


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Book cover of The Fornax Assassin

The Fornax Assassin by J.C. Gemmell,

In 2038 a devastating pandemic sweeps across the world. Two decades later, Britain remains the epicenter for the Fornax variant, annexed by a terrified global community.

David Malik is as careful as any man to avoid contact with the virus. But when his sister tests positive as an asymptomatic carrier,ā€¦

Book cover of Eight Faces at Three: A John J. Malone Mystery

Angela M. Sanders Why did I love this book?

If screwball detective fiction intrigues you, you must read Craig Rice. Why not start with Eight Faces of Three, the mystery introducing the wacky, rye-soaked team of Jake Justus, Helene Brand, and John Joseph Malone?

Justus is a good-looking press agent and the bookā€™s moral center; Brand is a gorgeous heiress and non-stop partier; and Malone is a stumpy lawyer-slash-PI with good instincts and better luck. Imagine Philip Marlowe meets the Marx Brothers.

In Eight Faces of Three, a young woman awakes to find her aunt murdered, all the houseā€™s clocks set to 3 am, and herself the prime suspect.

Craig Rice was the first mystery writer to grace the cover of Time magazine. Her private life was strewn with ex-husbands and empty booze bottles, and she died way too young at 49.

However, her literary legacyā€”one critic dubbed her the ā€œDorothy Parker of detective fictionā€ā€”will keep her alive in the hearts of screwball mystery lovers for a good long time.

By Craig Rice,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Eight Faces at Three as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Pioneering woman crime writer Craig Rice introduces her series sleuth, gin-soaked Chicago lawyer John J. Malone

John J. Malone, defender of the guilty, is notorious for getting his culpable clients off. Itā€™s the innocent ones who are problems. Like Holly Inglehart, accused of piercing the black heart of her well-heeled and tyrannical aunt Alexandria with a lovely Florentine paper cutter. No one who knew the old battle-ax liked her, but Hollyā€™s prints were found on the murder weapon. Plus, she had a motive: She was about to be disinherited for marrying a common bandleader.

With each new lurid headline, Hollyā€™sā€¦


Book cover of The G-String Murders

Angela M. Sanders Why did I love this book?

Yes, that Gypsy Rose Lee. Lee not only wrote The G-String Murders, she followed it up the next year with Mother Finds a Body.

In The G-String Murders, Lee writes from the first person, telling a remarkably homey murder tale (although not as sanitized as Lady of Burlesque, the movie starring Barbara Stanwyck based on the novel).

The mystery here is okay as mysteries go, but for me the real draw is the non-stop wise-cracking and the almost domestic portrayal of burlesque life. In the novel, Lee and her boyfriend Biff trade comic observations and share cheap diner meals while they determine who killed two people with, you guessed it, g-strings.

By Gypsy Rose Lee,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The G-String Murders as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Narrating the twisted tale of a backstage double murder, Gypsy Rose Lee, the queen of the striptease, provides a tantalising glimpse into the underworld of burlesque theatre in 1940s America. When one performer is found strangled with a G-string, no one is above suspicion. A host of clueless coppers face off against the theatre's tough-talking guys and dolls, and when a second murder occurs, it's clear that Gypsy and her cohorts will have to crack the case themselves. A dazzling and wisecracking murder mystery noir that was the basis of the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque, starring Barbara Stanwyck.


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Book cover of The Vixen Amber Halloway

The Vixen Amber Halloway by Carol LaHines,

Ophelia, a professor of Dante, is stricken when she discovers that her husband Andy has been cheating on her with a winsome colleague. What follows is Opheliaā€™s figurative descent into hell as she obsessively tracks her subjects, performs surveillance in her beat-up Volvo, and moves into the property next doorā€¦

Book cover of She Shall Have Murder

Angela M. Sanders Why did I love this book?

Besides Nick and Nora, itā€™s not easy to find compelling sleuthing couples. Jane and Dagobert Brown are an exception. She Shall Have Murder introduces the duo.

Dagobert is a charming genius with an inability to settle down to a job, or, indeed, even a meaningful hobby for more than a few months. The novel is told from Janeā€™s point of view. Sheā€™s our Watson and is alternately frustrated and entranced by Dagobert. Sheā€™s also a crime novelist.

In She Shall Have Murder, Jane and Dagobert arenā€™t yet married. Dagobert is disentangling from his estranged wife, and Jane hasnā€™t yet established herself as a writer. With Dagobertā€™s encouragement, Jane drafts a mystery novel that takes place in the law office where she works. To their shock, the elderly client Jane has pegged as the bookā€™s murder victim actually dies.

The coroner rules it an accidental death, but Dagobert is sure it was murder. As they sort through suspects and motives, Jane and Dagobert trade loving barbs and wind up in laugh-out-loud situations. These novels are hard to find but worth the search.

By Delano Ames,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked She Shall Have Murder as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Dagobert Brownā€™s always got a new interest, Gregorian chant, wildflowers, sixteenth-century French poetry. His latest hobby, however, is murderā€”or at least, the murder mystery he wants Jane Hamish to write. Jane is the practical one, a no-nonsense girl, who has one weakness: Dagobert, who exasperates her and intrigues her in equal parts. ā€œDagobert is my hero,ā€ she says, ā€œbut he persistently refuses to act like one.ā€ So, together they start looking at people in Harrietā€™s office for plot ideas. Mrs. Robjohn seems like the perfect victim for Janeā€™s book: a lonely, delusional spinster who haunts the law offices where Janeā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Witch upon a Star

By Angela M. Sanders,

Book cover of Witch upon a Star

What is my book about?

Josie is eager to show off Wilfred's delights to her visiting sister, Jeanā€”even though Josie must conceal her magic from her. Jean is excited to attend Cookie Masterson's trademark "Ready-Set-Go!" workshop on becoming a life coach. Then there's the grand reopening of Darla's Cafe, where the doors are thrown open to reveal... a dead man, stabbed in the back. 

Even more worrisome, the sheriff receives a report of a fresh corpse at the retreat center. Maybe murder isn't so uncommon in Wilfred anymore, but two unfamiliar bodies within an hour certainly is! Josie's willing to let law enforcement take the lead. But when her sister receives the killer's chilling calling card, she'll use everything within her otherworldly powers to divine who in town has homicide as his new slogan...

Book cover of Beginning with a Bash
Book cover of The Black-Headed Pins
Book cover of Eight Faces at Three: A John J. Malone Mystery

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